Tetcott / Tetcote

Image copyright © Roger Peters, 2005
Permission received (email of 9 January 2005)
Results: 8 records
BBU01: design element - motifs - X in a square (nail-head, etc.) - with pellets
BBU02: design element - motifs - floral
BBU03: symbol - star - in a circle
LB01: design element - motifs
LB02: design element - motifs - floral - flower - 8-petal - in a circle (half)
LBH01: human figure - grotesque or fantastic - head - 3?
Scene Description: two remain whole (the north-east has clasped hands, and the north-west has a grinning face); one, at the south-west corner, is missing
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image from an illustration in Clarke (1918)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font
INFORMATION
FontID: 06625TET
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of the Holy Cross
Church Patron Saints: The Holy Cross
Country Name: England
Location: Devon, South West
Directions to Site: Located just W of the A388, about 15 km N of Launceston
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 11th - 13th century, Norman
Cognate Fonts: A similar, though not identical base, at nearby Clawton
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. Roger Peters, of www.wissensdrang.com, for his permission to use the transcription of and images from Stabb (1908)]
Font Notes: Click to view font notes
Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907: 196) as having a baptismal font of the Norman period. Noted in Stabb (1908) with an illustration. Described and illustrated in Clarke (1918): "This font is similar in style to that of Clawton [cf. Index entry], three miles away. Instead of cable moulding there is a band of ornament on the bowl, which, however, ceases for a space of 11 1/2 inches on the west. Beginning at the west there are three groups of star and pellet (two are restorations), three lilies, three star and pellet (two restorations), five four-leaved flowers, and a star in a sunk circle with a perpendicular bar through the star. The rest of the bowl is plain. Unhappily the rim of the bowl has been trimmed down. The low cylindrical shaft has a cushion base; there are masks at the north-east and north-west corners; the first has arms coming from behind the head, with hands clasped, as at Clawton; the second is a grotesque grinning face. The masks are smaller than at Clawton, measuring 6 inches only in depth [i.e., height]. At the south-west corner a mask is gone, and at the south-east there is an attempt at a foot ornament. The northern face of the cushion is the only one that has any ornament; a semicircular panel, 10 inches wide, encloses four lobes of a star. On the south side the cushion appears to have been cut away, as it is now flush with the shaft, while on the sides it projects an inch or more. Cement has been too recklessly used where the base joins the plinth. The font is of polyphant stone, and unlined." Described in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Norman, circular with a top border of crosses saltire. The base more elaborate than the bowl (cf. Clawton); corner faces and half rosettes between, as if it had originally been a font of the Cornish St-Thomas-by-Launceston type." [We are grateful to Dr. Roger Peters, of www.wissensdrang.com, for his permission to use the transcription of and images from Stabb (1908)]
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material:
stone, polyphant stone
Font Shape: hemispheric (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage Notes: not lined
Rim Thickness: 7.5 cm [calculated]
Diameter (inside rim): 47.5 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 61.25 cm*
Basin Depth: 32.5 cm*
Basin Total Height: 37.5 cm*
Height of Central Column: 16.75 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 66.25 cm* [includes 17.5 cm* for the lower base]
Notes on Measurements: * [measurements given in inches in Clarke (1918: 588)]
REFERENCES
Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part V", 50, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1918, pp. 583-587; r["References"]
Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part VI", 51, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1919, pp. 211-221; r["References"]
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
Pevsner, Nikolaus, North Devon, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1952
Stabb, John, Some old Devon churches, their roods, pulpits, fonts, etc., London: Simkin, [et al.], 1908-1916